Flip Flop! Pentagon Caves To Cheney Corp.

On Monday the Pentagon said it was extending the deadline for Halliburton to explain its billing for the third time. (I wish my editors were as understanding.) On Tuesday it said it was getting tough and withholding 15% a month in payments (some $60 million) until Halliburton subsidiaries got their act together. Today, the Pentagon caved again. The company has some $6 billion in contracts, many of them no-bid contracts that no other company had a chance to compete for.

But don't worry Cheney fans -- if the Pentagon had stuck to its get-tough policy, Halliburton had a plan:

"Halliburton said its subsidiary would offset any loss by simply keeping 15 percent from payments to subcontractors."

Yep, stick it to the little guy.